


Fixing the Sequels

by ARoseByAnotherName



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/M, First Order Politics (Star Wars), Fix-It, M/M, Multi, Rewrite, Slow Burn, Stormtrooper Culture (Star Wars)
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-11-14
Updated: 2020-11-14
Packaged: 2021-03-09 22:41:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,009
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27554008
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ARoseByAnotherName/pseuds/ARoseByAnotherName
Summary: Incident Report: 56-DAt approximately fourth hour this rotation, trooper FN-2187 deviated from his orders to convey the Resistance Operative, designation Poe Dameron, back to the brig, assisted in the escape of the prisoner, and jointly crashed their escape vessel onto the planet Jakku. Units have been sent to assess the crash and recover FN-2187 and Dameron.Damage to Bay 3 as well as Alpha Cannon and various other external features were incurred in the escape and a notice for repair to the vessel has been submitted, see Request 442-H4. The methods under which all other vessels in all other Bays 1-7 are kept when unmanned is being evaluated so as to prevent any future unauthorized access.An investigation has been opened into the circumstances that resulted in FN-2187's defection, see Report 209-A for details. High command will be kept appraised of the results of said ongoing investigation as they arise.
Relationships: Leia Organa/Han Solo, Original Female Character/Original Male Character, Rey/Ben Solo | Kylo Ren
Comments: 1
Kudos: 1





	Fixing the Sequels

**Author's Note:**

> I firmly believe that Disney had an opportunity with the Star Wars sequel trilogy that they blew harder than a hurricane in Florida. This is my attempt to rewrite the trilogy with similar character of similar backgrounds along a similar framework for the plot and have it not be a disaster of million dollar proportions. 

19 ABY  
Soma Skywalker  
Niieva Outpost, Jakku

Lots of unsavory and criminal people lived unsafely on the great dust ball Soma had once called her home. She’d been born there at the end of the Clone Wars and while she’d spent her childhood in the largest city of the planet, it was downright deserted by her new standards. Niieva was more of a waystation than a city, and the Gang that controlled it was just happy with it’s inconstant and often vagrant population. 

She herself had worked for the Gang, first as a child orphaned by the intergalactic war and then later as an adult with no skills beyond stealing and intimidation. Even then, she’d been a force to be reckoned with, and she’d eaten well thanks to her natural skill in combat. 

Shortly after her twenty-fourth year, Luke had come for her. To be more precise, he’d come in search of force sensitive people who might join his order and train to be Jedi. She’d heard of him of course, everyone had heard of the great Luke Skywalker, hero of the Republic and brother of Leia Organa. She’d never thought he’d come to Jakku though, so when he did, everyone was in an uproar. 

Her boss hadn’t exactly been pleased to have such an influential person putting their little planet in the spotlight, but no one ready thought he’d find anyone on Jakku to join his order. It was a planet of criminals and beggars, people with no place else to go, or no way to leave. Most of the outposts had fewer than two dozen inhabitants, and while there were thousands of them worldwide, the population of the planet never broke 100,000.

There had been over ten thousand Jedi at the height of the old order, Soma knew that now, but ten thousand out of the trillions of beings in the universe was almost inconsequential. Even back in the time of the Old Republic, when the Jedi had credits to spare and acted as the arm of the senate, many force sensitive children went unfound. That Master Luke had managed to find even one apprentice was a miracle, let alone the following he had developed over the fifteen years since the fall of the Empire.  
She’d always remember the day she met him. They were nearly the same age, though Soma had never been quite sure of her actual birthday. It had been odd to see such serenity and confidence on someone so young, and even stranger to see such life and compassion in someone on Jakku. 

He’d been everything she wanted to be ever since she was a starving child sleeping under a different roof every night. He was powerful, capable, smart, and had the universe at his fingertips. She’d been quite jealous, and he’d noticed her for it. 

When he’d offered to train her, to take her away from that place and bring her to the temple he had built on New Alderaan, it had felt like a dream. She hadn’t hesitated, if nothing else, the chance to get off world was infrequent and the toll usually expensive; by the next rise of the sun, they been gone. Her old boss hadn’t been pleased to lose his best enforcer, and they’d fled in a halo of slugs, but semantics. 

It felt like more than nine years since they’d escaped to the stars, laughing with adrenaline and the fact that they were alive. Her time on Jakku had been like a dream, every moment rolled into the next, making all of her memories an arduous jumble of fear and pain. After leaving, every moment was distinct, beautiful or awful with clarity, and she’d lived more than a lifetime in less than a decade. 

There had been pain and struggles, but never for a moment did she regret her decision. Soma liked the person she had become as a Soma Skywalker, and returning to the place where she’d last been without a surname felt like returning to her gravesite. 

But it was necessary. The only person who knew Soma’s origins was Master Luke, and she’d made him promise that he’d never tell another soul. 

“What’s your name?” He’d asked a few minutes after they’d gone into hyperspace. They were going to stop by a few other worlds on the way back to New Alderaan, but it would take several days at least to reach their first destination. 

She’d leaned back in the cramped co-captain seat and sighed. She couldn’t do anything besides man the guns from her spot, but Luke’s tiny vessel hadn’t been made for long-term space travel. He’d mentioned that it was only a rental for his excursion to the desert world and that they’d be on a bigger transport with beds, plumbing, and legroom within an hour. 

When she’d asked him what he would have done if he’d found more than one force sensitive on the planet, he’d chuckled from behind her and told her of the dream he’d had a week previous about a small desert world on the outer edge of the Inner Core and it’s brown eyed inhabitant.

“Soma.” She’d responded, fidgeting in her seat, trying to find a more comfortable position. 

“Do you have a last name, Soma.” His tone was gentle, and she’d listened to the click of the controls as he piloted the craft. She’d watched Jakku turn into a speck in the distance as he’d prepare them for hyperspace, but now there was nothing to see but the passing stars. It turned her stomach a little. 

“No, they only ever called me Soma.” It meant ‘fearless’ in the local tongue, and the other children had been calling it as her name for longer than she could remember. She’d infrequently wondered if she’d once had another name. 

“Well Soma, since you’re going to be my padawan, I’d be honored to introduce you to the others as Soma Skywalker.” She abruptly turned in her seat, no easy feat with the restraints and lack of space, and stared at the back of his head until he turned to meet her eyes. The autopilot was engaged, and they had at least another fifty minutes for her to panic.

She narrowed her eyes. “Why would you do that? You barely know me.”

He’d smiled, but when he answered he was more series than she’d yet heard him speak. “The Jedi are a family, and you will be welcomed among us as such.”

He tilted his head and looked concerned. “You don’t have to use it if you don’t want to, I just thought you’d like the option.” And then he’d turned back to the console, letting Soma consult her thoughts in silence. 

When Jeb had been introducing his people to the Jedi Master, Soma had been the only one without a last name, and even after all these years, it had irked her. There hadn’t been any kind of pause or hesitation in the meeting, and she hadn’t even thought Luke had noticed her until he’d sought her out later that evening to speak with her privately. It was a small sadness, but one she’d grown so accustomed to knowing that it no longer warranted conscious recognition. 

But, apparently, he had noticed. He’d seen how even surrounded by others and honored by her superiors; she was alone. 

“Thank You.”

He hadn’t replied, and they hadn’t spoken again until they’d reached the next planet, but a few days later when he’d introduced her to the other members of his fledgling order, he’d called her Soma Skywalker. 

She’d never been Soma Skywalker in this place though, and it pained her in many ways to even think of this world, these people, and the Soma that had died on this planet. 

Jeb was no longer in control, someone had offed him not long after she’d left, and the wheel of power had turned so many times that she wasn’t even sure if anyone besides Dex might know her. Still, she’d taken precautions. They were disguised, and though she’d brought Reyna with her, she was confident no one even gave them a second glance as they hurried through the streets. 

Dex hadn’t been difficult to find, but there had been the concern of his inconsistent relationship with the idea of home. They’d been children together and had spent many hungry nights curled around one another in the absence of blankets or parents. When she’d been hired by the Gang, she’d recommended Dex, and he’d gotten a job as well. 

She’d become a bodyguard, an enforcer, and had been well acquainted with the many men and women who rotated through the positions of power over the years. Jeb had run messages for them at first, but eventually he began running recon on the outposts. 

It had been his job for many years by the time Soma had left to pass through the many thousands of outposts scattered around the sphere and report back to his superiors on their performance. Were they up to snuff, were people double dealing or smuggling parts off world without the gang’s permission, were the scavenging communities effective or did they need to be relocated? 

He’d been good at it, and spent much of his time away from the main cities. She wasn’t sure, but she had no real reason to believe that he’d be doing something else after all this time. 

Luck was with them, and when she’d knocked on his door, there’d been an answer. 

“What’dya want?” A slurred voice called after a few dozen hearty knocks brought him to the door and made him open the eye hatch. 

“Dex, it’s me, it’s Soma.” 

A long pause, the eye hatch closing, some shuffling, and suddenly the door was open. 

Seeing him, she was relived to note that his unkempt clothing and speech were a result of recent waking rather than spice. His eyes were rapidly clearing as his mind processed the sight of her and her child. He moved aside and let her in.

This little apartment had once belonged to them both. They’d been about twelve, and together they’d been able to afford it, just barley. They’d scraped together rent for years, occasionally missing meals, but they’d never lost the place. Even when they began to make the kind of money that would allow either of them to get much bigger and nicer places independently, neither had found other accommodations and they’d never renegotiated their original agreement. 

Until, that is, Soma left with Luke. 

Dex hadn’t even been in Niieva at the time, but that wasn’t unusual. He spent half the year running all over the planet with a few weeks of leave here and there. She wondered how long it had sat empty after her departure, who would have told him of her leaving. 

It was messier than she had ever allowed it to become during her tenancy, but by no means unclean. It was more lived in than she remembered, and she wondered if he had found a more sedentary form of employment. Jobs came and went with the leader of the Gang, and while someone like Soma had relative security from her competence, Dex had always done the things that anyone else could do, if slightly better than most. 

He looked older than his thirty-three years. Time hadn’t been kind to him, and the barren climate hadn’t helped. He was weather beaten, and permanently tanned. There were scars she didn’t remember, and a few that she did. 

There was a prominent bite mark on his left bicep he’d gotten from a wild animal they’d tried to poach for dinner as children which had proven to their confidence that it had earned every continued second of its miserable hissing life. The little one over his eyebrow was from the one time she’d tried to teach him to throw knives, he’d been fifteen and overly confident. She knew that if she looked, there would be dozens of others with stories, some of which she had been a part. 

The one across his throat interested her the most. It was recent, still pink and healing. She’d wondered how he’d survived it, who had taken care of him. It also explained the gravel in his voice when he finally spoke after a few minutes of tense silence. 

“Why are you here.”

She looked down at her daughter before answering. 

“I need your help.”

Dex snorted and got up to make himself a ration. He did not offer her one and she didn’t ask. 

“Could’a guessed that. You’re gone, what? Ten years? And then suddenly you’re back? I’m not actually stupid.”

She’d never thought he was stupid, even though he couldn’t read and was consistently fleeing bad decisions. She’d gotten him out of more situations than either of them wanted to admit, Dex due to shame, and Soma due to anger. Dex might have been the big one, the boy that kept the bad men away at night, but Soma kept them fed and made apologizes for them both until she was big enough to scare the bad men away herself.

“Whose that?” 

He sat across from her with his food and nodded little Reyna who was trying to hide in Soma’s robes. Soma gave a gentle mental nudge with the force and nodded towards Dex. A lot rode on this meeting, for Reyna especially.

“Sunshine, Reyna darling, come say hello.”

Reyna only retreated further behind Soma. She had never been a shy child, but this place scared her, and her life had been one long series of scary events since Vandon had died last month. Force, had it only been a month?

Dex wasn’t offended at the cut direct, actually chuckling, before coughing and returning to his food. 

“Someone’s after us. I was hoping you could take care of her while I take care of the problem.”

He raised his eyebrow, the scar with it. 

“I thought you’d gone off to be some big shot Jedi, that’s what Mona said anyway. What does a Jedi have to fear?” His tone was scathing, but she didn’t feel the jab like she might have once. 

They had loved each other, the Soma of before and him, in all the ways two people could love each other, but it hadn’t been enough. There’d been happiness between them, but as they’d gotten older and life had beaten them down, so too had they had sorrow and jealousy. 

Mona wasn’t the only or even the first woman to catch Dex’s eye and Soma’s ire, and there had been plenty of men that had caused the possessive streak in Dex to come out as well. By the end, their relationship had been a series of long absences interspersed with passionate moments and violent arguments. She’d felt as helpless about her failing relationship with the only person she’d ever trusted as she did about her life in general.

“I can pay you.” 

She showed him the credits she’d brought, and he scowled. 

“That’s not worth a lot here, you know that, or have you forgotten?” His voice was tight, and she thought the idea that she’d forgotten him, and the way of life on Jakku, hurt him more than the bribe. 

“It’s all I have.” She paused, thought about it, and dug around in one of her pockets. “That and this.”

He looked down at the small black drive in her hand and frowned. 

“What is it?”

She shook her head, “It’s information, information worth more than my life and the lives of everyone on this world.” 

He stared at her, trying to decide if he believed her, if perhaps she was exaggerating. 

“You’re not going to tell me what’s on it? I could always just figure it out myself once you leave.”

A flood of relief coursed through her.

“So, you’ll watch her.”

He scowled and stood up to clean his now empty bowl. 

“I didn’t say that.”

But Soma knew him, even after all this time, and she knew that he would.

“Even if you managed to find something to run it, you wouldn’t be able to get past the encryption.” 

He grunted but didn’t say anything else. Soma gently put the drive on the table next to the credits. The plate, now clean, clinked as he put it back in its pile and her turned to look at her.

She understood the feelings in his eyes, like he was seeing a ghost, or a memory of another life. But for Soma, that life had been a poorer one, something happily left behind. She saw now that while her time away had been joyous and fulfilling, Dex had merely survived. 

“I don’t know how long I’ll be gone; it could be a while. I brought her here because I need her to disappear. She’s in just as much danger as I am, maybe more.” 

He looked at Reyna now, at her Sunshine. She wondered if he was seeing the little girl he’d grown up with, a little Soma reborn. 

That wasn’t the end of the conversation. They discussed the particulars for another hour, but Soma was gone before full night had even begun in Niieva, leaving little Reyna with the closest thing she had to blood relations. 

He was on permanent leave from the Gang due to his recent injury, the recent transition of power hadn’t been one of the smoother ones. In the morning, he’d take Reyna and they’d go to one of the smaller outposts on the far side of the planet. It was small, but new and wouldn’t have to move for several years at least. No one would recognize either of them. 

When Soma returned, he’d give her back the drive worth 100,000 lives, and she’d tell him exactly what was on it. 

Of course, this never happened, and it would be almost fifteen years before anyone came for little Reyna and the drive. And when they came, men fell from the sky in droves like the rains on Naboo.


End file.
